Iran seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz, US official says, as tensions
remain high in region
[November 15, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran seized a Marshall
Islands-flagged oil tanker as it traveled through the narrow Strait of
Hormuz on Friday, a U.S. official said, turning the ship into Iranian
territorial waters in the first-such interdiction in months in the
strategic waterway.
Iran did not acknowledge the seizure, though it comes as Tehran has been
increasingly warning it can strike back after facing a 12-day war in
June with Israel that saw the U.S. strike Iranian nuclear sites.
The ship, the Talara, had been traveling from Ajman, United Arab
Emirates, onward to Singapore when Iranian forces intercepted it, said
the U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to
discuss intelligence matters. A U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton drone had been
circling above the area where the Talara was for hours on Friday
observing the seizure, flight-tracking data analyzed by The Associated
Press showed.
A private security firm, Ambrey, described the assault as involving
three small boats approaching the Talara.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center
separately acknowledged the incident, saying a possible “state activity”
forced the Talara to turn into Iranian territorial waters. Cyprus-based
Columbia Shipmanagement later said in a statement that it had “lost
contact” with the tanker, which was carrying high sulphur gasoil.
The company has “notified the relevant authorities and is working
closely with all relevant parties — including maritime security agencies
and the vessel owner — to restore contact with the vessel,” the firm
said. “The safety of the crew remains our foremost priority.”
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The Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on
vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone
attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew
members in 2021. Those attacks began after U.S. President Donald
Trump in his first term in office unilaterally withdrew from Iran's
2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
In May 2022, Iran took two Greek tankers and held them until
November of that year. Iran seized the Portuguese-flagged cargo ship
MSC Aries in April 2024.
Those attacks found themselves subsumed by the Iranian-backed
Houthis assaults targeting ships during the Israel-Hamas war in the
Gaza Strip, which drastically reduced shipping in the crucial Red
Sea corridor.
The years of tensions between Iran and the West, coupled with the
situation in the Gaza Strip, exploded into a full-scale 12-day war
in June.
Iran long has threatened to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the
narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded
passes. The U.S. Navy has long patrolled the Mideast through its
Bahrain-based 5th Fleet to keep the waterways open.
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